Design a safety system for sinkhole problem (Germany)

The Geotechnical investigations showed a risk of sinkhole happening in an autobahn in Germany. My task was to develop a novel safety system to retrofit the road in case of sinkhole happening. The proposed solution included layers of the steel net and prestressed cables which effectively carry the vehicle loads in case of sinkhole happening. As the system was novel, there was no code based provision for the design of such system. Therefore, considering the safety, durability, and serviceability factors, appropriate ultimate states for forces and deformations being proposed and then accepted by a governmental proofing committee.

In order to design the system, a complex Finite Element model developed in ANSYS include soil, net, prestressing cables and asphalt layers. Different types of the elements utilized to model the materials and contact elements also utilized between layers to investigate the actual deformations. In order to calibrate the finite element model, an experimental test was utilized and an intermediate FE model based on such test was developed to calibrate the modeling parameters in the main model.